Loot Trading in Classic Update - Customer Service Will Not Transfer Items

Blizzard has clarified that Customer Service will not be transferring items in WoW Classic. The loot trading system for raids, outlined earlier in the year, will be in the players' hands.

Blizzard

Hey all, just wanted to make everybody aware that we made an update to the original post with the following information:

We saw some confusion about a specific part of this post so we want to be clear that Customer Service will NOT be transferring items in WoW Classic and the system that we outlined will be in the players’ hands. If we were to go down the road of developing a policy on item trading, we believe it would end up allowing the exact same kind of abuse that we are trying to minimize with the 2-hour trade window system which we outlined in the original post.

Ninja looting does have consequences in the community and those who do it will have trouble getting invited to group. In other words: your reputation will matter. Remember to play nice, play fair folks!

If you missed it earlier, this is the original loot trading announcement. Loot trading will only work in Classic Raids--this means no trading in dungeons, including UBRS.

Blizzard

At BlizzCon 2018, we talked about how we plan to keep loot trading in World of Warcraft Classic. We added loot trading in Wrath of the Lich King to solve a common problem: a player could accidentally loot an item meant for another player or give it to the wrong person using Master Loot. They would then have to contact Blizzard to get the item moved to the intended recipient, which might take days. We wanted to keep loot trading in WoW Classic because the end result is the same – the correct person gets the item – and it’ll save everyone time.

But we heard your concerns about the potential for abuse of the loot trading system in parties of five. It’s possible that abusive play could take the form of a group of four players colluding to deny loot to a stranger who joined their party as a pick-up. Raid groups, being much larger, come with more understanding on the part of solo players that loot distribution can depend on the whims of the many players and raid leaders who know each other.

Taking that into consideration, we’ve decided that the two-hour loot trading system in WoW Classic will only apply to soulbound gear that drops in raids. Soulbound loot that drops in five-person content will not be tradeable at any time. What we hope to do is to strike a balance between saving players time and minimizing the potential for abuse of the system. We think this approach better addresses the concerns we’ve heard from players on the subject.The answer to the UBRS question is: loot trading will be available in content that has a raid lock. UBRS will not have a raid lock.

A big part of loot trading (in a 2-hour window) as a solution to a concern is that raid locks require you to wait a week (or 3 days) before you can try again for the loot that was accidentally given to the wrong person.

Commento di Cipherrr

This is after all what the community has been asking for. No GM intervention with loot. So I expect they will cheer at this rather than see it as a negative. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Commento di omedon666

on 2019-04-13T22:13:02-05:00

"Ninja looting does have consequences in the community and those who do it will have trouble getting invited to group. In other words: your reputation will matter."

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:

Classic will be very popular... among the population that know what they’re getting into! This idea of empowering the community around you with “reputation” mattering will be a filter of its own, for good or ill.

I’m not knocking it, just stating it for emphasis. The idea and the power of personal reputation in a community living in a “small town” mindset in classic will repel players as strongly as it attracts. Asking the modern gamer to pretend that internet gaming connectivity is novel enough for “reputation” will be such a culture shock! It’s honestly fascinating to contemplate! We’re all so disposable now to each other because nothing about playing online comes anywhere near the “whooaaa those are... other people” of early MMOs!

Commento di pikamaster

on 2019-04-13T22:41:25-05:00

What if you get invited to a dungeon and the 4 other players are from the same guild. And you got ninja loot'd by the members, what you gonna do? You can do NOTHING about it, as they are 4 when you are alone. And that they warn you that if you say something about it, they will black list you from the server (well reputation wise) welll .......... yeah that would suck.

Like if the group tell you prior to the run, that the mage need the rod, and you are fine with it. then fine, because there was an agreement.

But what if there is an agreement that got breach(like you asked to get the cloak andthey agree, but everyone needed on it)? the words of 1 is outnumbered by the words of 4... and your reputation will suffer from it (despite the agreement was made)

I hope the customer support will comeback in the future, becasue this is really stupid from Blizzard for letting ninja looting be a thing(again)

Commento di omedon666

on 2019-04-13T22:49:36-05:00

What if you get invited to a dungeon and the 4 other players are from the same guild.

Don't find yourself there if you don't want to risk the scenario you fear. Look both ways, and bail if something smells funny. There's no deserter debuff.

These inter-reputational politics were the basis for early MMO social interactions. The devs will not protect you with systems or policy, it's the wild west!

For the record, this is exactly why I don't have time for Classic. It's not for me, and I realize that, and respect that it IS for some people.

But yeah, that's the answer: Leave that group if you fear the worst. Leave before you all invest time in each other and deepen your mutual investment in that moment. That's the answer. Those things can happen, and this game predates "the internet is terrible, here are some systems to help with that." The internet is still terrible now, and those systems won't be there. Player beware.

If it means "don't PUG dungeons," that's what that means.

Commento di Earthsense13

on 2019-04-13T23:03:58-05:00

I mean, this is how it should be. WoW Classic is free for WoW subscribers, so why put a lot of resources to it.

Commento di couchpotato2013

on 2019-04-13T23:08:01-05:00

Exactly as I expected, especially after their customer service and support staff downsizing. Classic is a pet project and a containment area for a specific audience of the wow community. And the main reason why they introduced loot trading (to hopefully play on the accidental need roll or overzealous clicking from a raid chest) was because they did not want to waste the money and time handling problems within the community.

Glad that they put out this message to clarify to the community.

Commento di Arraya

on 2019-04-13T23:30:04-05:00

What if you get invited to a dungeon and the 4 other players are from the same guild. And you got ninja loot'd by the members, what you gonna do? You can do NOTHING about it, as they are 4 when you are alone. And that they warn you that if you say something about it, they will black list you from the server (well reputation wise) welll .......... yeah that would suck.

Like if the group tell you prior to the run, that the mage need the rod, and you are fine with it. then fine, because there was an agreement.

But what if there is an agreement that got breach(like you asked to get the cloak andthey agree, but everyone needed on it)? the words of 1 is outnumbered by the words of 4... and your reputation will suffer from it (despite the agreement was made)

I hope the customer support will comeback in the future, becasue this is really stupid from Blizzard for letting ninja looting be a thing(again)

You take screenshots of the Party Chat/Whispers and expose them for what they are, then.

Commento di SgtGrumbles

on 2019-04-13T23:32:35-05:00

your reputation will matter

Please bring this back to current WoW! I want to play with people on my realm always. No cross-realm, no phasing. Just real people who I can trade and interact with, and not the illusion of population.

Commento di Jorgee9001

on 2019-04-13T23:35:00-05:00

What if you get invited to a dungeon and the 4 other players are from the same guild. And you got ninja loot'd by the members, what you gonna do? You can do NOTHING about it, as they are 4 when you are alone. And that they warn you that if you say something about it, they will black list you from the server (well reputation wise) welll .......... yeah that would suck.

Like if the group tell you prior to the run, that the mage need the rod, and you are fine with it. then fine, because there was an agreement.

But what if there is an agreement that got breach(like you asked to get the cloak andthey agree, but everyone needed on it)? the words of 1 is outnumbered by the words of 4... and your reputation will suffer from it (despite the agreement was made)

I hope the customer support will comeback in the future, becasue this is really stupid from Blizzard for letting ninja looting be a thing(again)

The loot trading rule only applies to raids. So while it's possible 4 people could out-need role you for loot, they wouldn't be able to trade it among themselves. They wouldn't really benefit from the extra rolls and the whole guild would be flagged as untrustworthy. And worst case scenario, take screenshots of the conversations; you'll have the evidence. The Blizz post just stated that they won't intervene for trading loot; they'll still totally intervene for harassment and threats.

Commento di omedon666

on 2019-04-13T23:40:36-05:00

Man, I remember in Vanilla I considered running any dungeon above... like level 40 to be "oh that's over my head, I don't have that kind of commitment!"

I was a casual when casual meant soloing as a rogue who would gouge, backstab, gouge, backstab, gouge as assassination doing circles around a yeti in winterspring in the 50's!

Dungeons were for people with guilds, the end. Anything else, yeah, you were risking the kind of nightmare ninjaloot scenario that will only be more prevalent now because, no, we don't see each other as people any more in internet gaming space unless we know each other personally IRL.

Guilds had blacklists of guilds and players. And they meant something. Like, that sounds insane to me now, but that was normal. One guy tells his guild that he had a bad experience with you, and that whole guild would avoid you... whether the story they got was honest or not: it was from someone they knew, and they don't know you. I heard so many stories like this, so I just didn't do dungeons toward the end of the game, it sounded way too crazy for my time!

If you had a problem with someone, you often asked your officers to go to their officers and it was all very "srs bsns" type stuff.

Man, just typing this is giving me both good and bad nostalgia, but you really were an independent contractor on your own and careful/paranoid of any grouping venture if it wasn't with your guild!

Commento di Linedwell

on 2019-04-13T23:49:28-05:00

Good, as it should be.

I'm curious to see what Classic's scope of support will be as well.

I guess it will be minimal support, and by minimal I mean no support at all.

Commento di omedon666

on 2019-04-13T23:56:33-05:00

“Tonight you’re all going to be part of a social experiment...”

Commento di Markst3id

on 2019-04-13T23:56:54-05:00

Most of you have never actually played Wow Classic at a competitive level. All these expectations of how loot trading should be done came long after wow vanilla. Get ready for the #$%^ show I can’t wait to see all of you fall out before you even clear MC

Commento di Sh3phrd

on 2019-04-14T00:21:08-05:00

I feel like it's worth mentioning, that ninja looting and denying loot to pugs can be done whether or not loot trading is a thing. As has been stated above, a group of people can just not give you loot. The only real difference seems to be that if you steal something, you don't have the excuse of 'oh, well it's too late, I can't trade it to you now.' At which point, people will stop inviting you to groups. Loot trading, to me, seems to remove the hassle and annoying aspects of soulbound loot acquisition, while maintaining the social consequences. Win-win.

Commento di Punie

on 2019-04-14T00:38:22-05:00

I don't fully understand why they exclude dungeons from loot trading, but oh well

Commento di deathlavitz

on 2019-04-14T00:55:12-05:00

pugging, a whole level of dangerous as it was back then. Even more so now as people know how to game systems, hope you make friends to do dungeons with - and never leave them outside of your LFG moments to 'cause you'll need 'em to back you up that you didn't ninja loot or someone did ninja loot.

Commento di ChrisNewCooper

on 2019-04-14T01:04:28-05:00

your reputation will matter

Please bring this back to current WoW! I want to play with people on my realm always. No cross-realm, no phasing. Just real people who I can trade and interact with, and not the illusion of population.

Play in a RP server.

Commento di vindurza

on 2019-04-14T01:11:00-05:00

I look forward to classic purely for exploring the world again but also to watch people get angry about how bad of a grind it is and how busted some of the systems were